Them's the Breaks

Apparently, Max thought that it had been too long since he saw his buddies up at the hospital and decided it was time for a visit. We've had a rough couple of days -- Wednesday evening I was getting Max ready for his bath. He was running around in his room while I got everything ready. He followed me into the bathroom when I went to turn off the water then promptly turned around, ran back into his room, and shut the door. I turned off the water and grabbed his baby soap when I heard a crash and a scream. I ran into his room to discover that Max had pulled his dresser down on himself and his leg was pinned underneath (for anyone who, like us, hadn't quite gotten around to anchoring large furniture to the wall -- go do it ... tonight). Max was crying and didn't seem to keen on standing up, although he could wiggle his toes and would put a little weight on his leg. But, that was too darn scary for me, so I packed him up and we drove to the emergency room (opting to take the longer drive to the big hospital where Max was born, because I know them and trust them). He cried all the way -- since he normally doesn't cry more than a few minutes over anything, I knew I was right to drag him in to the ER right away.

We had a fairly painless ER visit (even though I was dousing the boy with Purell frequently, since there were some little RSV patients in the Pediatric ER with us). They gave Max an ice pack and some Motrin while we waited for x-rays. The Motrin made him feel much better and he was acting like his normal chipper self (although he didn't want to move off of my lap). The x-rays revealed that he had a fracture in his femur. The good news was that it wasn't a bad fracture -- it didn't go all the way through the bone and nothing had moved. The bad news is that the only way to cast that fracture on someone Max's age is to put them in a partial body cast (spica cast). Once the cast was on, Max would be totally immobile until the cast came off in 4-6 weeks. Ugh, trying to keep a toddler happy and still for an hour can be challenging -- trying to keep him happy and still for a month+ will be quite a feat.

They couldn't cast him that night -- they wanted to wait until any swelling went down before casting him. So, they admitted him to the hospital and had him stay over night and planned to cast him the next morning. I called Dad to tell him the bad news. Grandma was able to come and stay with Molly so that Dad could meet us up at the hospital. Since I had to go home to feed Molly, Dad would stay with Max overnight.

The pediatric unit was packed, so Max ended up in the "penthouse" room with two roommates, instead of the normal one. It was about 11 p.m. by the time they checked us in and Max was very tired and crabby. After a couple unsuccessful attempts to check his blood pressure, they let us try to get him to sleep. I ended up climbing up into the hospital crib with him and lying down with him until he drifted off. Just like at home, he put his hands behind his head to fall asleep -- he looks so cute and debonair. Once Max was asleep, I went home to relieve Grandma and try to get some sleep. I was hoping that Max was tired enough to sleep deeply, but Mr. Light Sleeper was still a light sleeper even though he was exhausted. He woke up every time a nurse came into the room or whenever anyone moved around or made noise (which, in a large hospital with two roommates, was at least every half hour). Poor Dad didn't get much sleep either.

Molly and I headed up the hospital yesterday morning. They took Max down to start getting him ready for casting around 10 a.m. After no sleep and no food and a trip to get an IV placed, he wasn't a very happy camper. In order to put a cast on a two year old, they had to put Max under general anesthetic (blah). Although they originally thought they'd have to intubate him, they ended up not having to do a full intubation (which I was happy about -- he's already spent too much time on a ventilator for my taste). The doctors also decided that he didn't need a full spica cast, but that they'd cast his broken leg from toe to hip with a band around his hips/lower torso. Dad, Molly, and I stayed with him until he was ready to go back to the operating room, and then I went back and stayed with him until he was asleep. I had to laugh when the doctors and nurses told me what a "good job" I did watching them put medicine through his IV to knock him out. :P Heck, I've seen intubations, extubations, spinal taps, PICC line attempts, IV being placed, ROP exams, etc., etc. -- that was nothing!

Everything went well and Max was a trooper. He got to have his very first popsicle in recovery and he thought that was pretty good (and got it ALL over). The hospital sent someone down to set us up with a kiddie wheelchair and a special car seat. Happily, since he didn't have the full spica cast, Max still fits into his regular car seat. They were ready to discharge him around 2 p.m., but we had to stay until he peed (and he didn't want to!), so we didn't leave until closer to 5 p.m. I have to say that, once again, I'm impressed with the care we received at the hospital. The doctors, nurses, and staff were all great. It would have been nice to have been able to swing by the NICU while we were all up there, but we figured we'd stop in and visit when Max gets his cast off (since he wasn't at his best). Molly also gets a couple of kudos -- she spent the whole day with us at the hospital and was a little angel. She flirted with all the doctors and nurses and everyone oohed and aahed over her (of course, what parent doesn't like to hear how cute and well behaved their baby is ;).

Max was exhausted last night and seemed glad to sleep in his own bed. We put him down at 7 p.m. (his normal bedtime) and he slept like a rock until almost 8 a.m. this morning. We're adapting to life with an immobile toddler -- I think it is going to be a long few weeks! Diapering him is a big challenge -- we have to use several different layers to keep everything clean and neat. First we take an incontinence pad and put it in a small (Molly's size) diaper. Then we put that in a small adult diaper. Then we tuck the plastic edges of the adult diaper around the inner diaper/pad layer and then tuck everything under the edges of the cast (the idea is that only the waterproof plastic on the outside of the adult diaper is actually touching the cast, so it can't possibly get wet). Then we have to take another adult diaper and put it on the normal way, to hold everything in place. That seemed like too many layers of paper and plastic over his skin, so I took an old pair of my panties and cut them open at the sides and pinned them in place to hold everything together (instead of using the second adult diaper on top of everything). I did tell him this is the only time he is allowed to wear women's underwear. ;) We'll see how that works. I might just get some fabric and velcro and make a couple "cast covers" for him.

Max is not happy about being stuck in one spot. We set up a beanbag chair for him downstairs and we have the wheelchair to use. So far, he's been watching an awful lot of "Dee dees" (Baby Einsteins) and getting spoiled rotten. He still was tired today and crabby -- he's getting some souped up Tylenol for pain. Hopefully we'll all adjust and find a new routine and muddle through the next month. I went out to the library and got him a stack of books and some Baby Einstein DVDs that he hasn't seen. I also bought him some big crayons and a travel magnadoodle. I'm hoping we can find some stationary things for him to do besides watching DVDs. It about broke my heart when I was putting on my shoes and getting ready to go, because Max looked up at me with pleading eyes and said, "Mama, walk. Go!" He saw my shoes and wanted me to take him for a walk. :( Poor little guy!

We're hoping for a speedy recovery and that his fracture heals in four weeks instead of six. We'll keep you posted!